Category Archives: Associations

The Travel Agents Association of India’s (TAAI) 63rd convention that will take place in Abu Dhabi from October 14-16, 2016 is likely to get about 600-700 delegates from across India. Jay Bhatia, National Treasurer and Chairman (Tourism Council), TAAI, revealed this, adding, “We are also expecting our overseas members to participate that include DMCs and operators from the UAE and the Middle East region. We are currently awaiting fares from airlines for the package that we are giving to members starting from Rs 24,900 plus registration per person on twin-sharing basis.” For four-star hotel stay, the package is from Rs 22,300 plus registration and airfare. TAAI has so far met Jet-Etihad, Emirates, and Oman Air. Abu Dhabi, he adds, was chosen because of its proximity to India and good connections from most major cities of India. “That way our members don’t waste time flying and members from all our regions and chapters can directly connect to Abu Dhabi or Dubai. The Abu Dhabi Tourism & Cultural Authority also came forward to offer us full support for the Indian Travel Congress,” Bhatia adds.

The Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chapter of the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has announced a first-ever Badminton League that will be played in Lucknow on September 11, 2016.  Chapter Chairman, Sunil B. Satyawakta, said, “For the first time, our chapter will be organising a ‘TAAI Badminton League 2016’ and the prestigious trophy this year would be known as ‘Tigerair Cup’. Over 85 travel agents have registered themselves to play and include both TAAI members as well as non-members, staff and their family members, airlines and GDSs from all over Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Besides the players, we also expect a large number of our fellow agents visiting and cheering the players. It has been our endeavor to bring the fellow trade partners together so that they can bond, understand and interact.” The matches will be played at Babu Banarsi Das Badminton Academy in Lucknow on 11 September 2016. The TAAI Chapter has hired the entire academy, consisting of eight courts, for the day. Besides that, it will have the lawns for putting up the food court as well as a Selfie Point.  

The Gujarat Chapter of the Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) recently conducted a networking event for all its members that saw a great turn-out. Jayendrasinh K Jhala, Chairman, IATO Chapter Gujarat, said, “We had a wonderful landmark gathering in Ahmedabad on July 27, 2016. We have an excellent harmony in our chapter and we saw maximum member recruitment this year with 25 new members in just seven months. Our Chapter also gets good support from the executive committee, president and the secretary of IATO.”  

The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has signed an MoU with Mount Carmel College (Autonomous) in Bengaluru. M.S. Raghavan, Chairman, TAAI Karnataka, said, “We will collaboratively work broadly in the following areas besides other issues arising from time to time on tourism education. This will include designing the course curriculum and making it industry-relevant, and sourcing internships and final job placements for students of Mount Carmel College. We will also assist in arranging guest lecturers from the industry to update the current developments and conducting trade-related workshops. Other activities will include undertaking capacity development initiatives for the faculty members, sourcing live projects for the students from corporations in the sector, and other related initiatives with an objective of making B.Voc in Hospitality & Tourism Course and industry-oriented course that includes skill-training as well.” TAAI has in the past signed a similar MoU with HR College, Mumbai, Garden City College in Bengaluru, and the Lucknow University. Jay Bhatia, Tourism Council Chairman, TAAI, stated, “We at TAAI want to empower the future generations to understand and preview the industry. We want leaders of tomorrow to feel and understand the world before they set foot into the trade. Enhance and empower them is what we are looking at.”

The two biggest travel trade associations in India, the Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) and the Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI), in co-ordination with IATA, will be coming together to conduct joint training workshops in 16 cities starting from September 14 and ending on September 29, 2016. This will not just be for its members but for all IATA agents as well. These three-hour sessions aim to improve the participant’s overall understanding about the latest development and impending changes in the billing and settlement reports used in BSP. Interested agents are requested to register latest by September 9, 2016 to participate. Registration will  be limited to two representatives per agency. BSP India is scheduled to migrate its billing software to IATA’s single global software – IBSPs. This joint effort is aimed at getting all IATA-accredited agencies in India to get familiar with the new BSP reports.

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Africa Travel Association (ATA), a division of the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), to strengthen the tourism links between Africa and the Asia Pacific region. Both the organisations have agreed to cooperate in a number of areas including market intelligence and proprietary research; conferences and events; advocacy themes and grass-roots development through Chapter networks. ATA will also contribute content for the PATA monthly Visitor Economy Bulletin and for the dedicated PATA website on sustainability. PATA will be seeking to use the good offices of the ATA to strengthen further its presence throughout the continent. The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority recently became the first government member from Africa to join the PATA. Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA said, “I am very pleased that there is shared determination within our organisations to forge this new MoU into a worthwhile partnership that produces tangible and mutually beneficial benefits for ATA, PATA and all our members. The demand from source markets across the Asia Pacific to visit tourist destinations in Africa is unprecedented. We look forward to helping ATA and the nations of Africa as they bid to maintain a balanced and sustainable approach to managing even greater numbers of visitors to some of the world’s most famous attractions and landmarks.” Stephen Hayes, President & CEO, CCA, said, “We believe an active MoU with PATA is important to strengthen tourism to Africa. The potential for tourism in Africa is enormous and it offers very significant opportunities for business as well as environmental awareness. We couldn’t ask for a better partner.”

PATA India Chapter in cooperation with Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, is conducting its business development roadshows in six European cities from October 17-27, 2016. The roadshow will begin in Helsinki (Finland) on October 17, and move on to Stockholm (Sweden) on October 18, Copenhagen (Denmark) on October 20, Vienna (Austria) on October 24, Prague (Czech Republic) on October 26, and conclude in Warsaw (Poland) on October 27. PATA India Chapter’s Executive Director, Runeep Sangha, said, “PATA looks forward to carrying 15-20 sellers from India including airlines, hotels, special interest groups, and destination management companies.” The meetings aim to promote inbound tourism from these important and emerging source markets for India.

According to a Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) study, Maharashtra has attracted highest investment from private investors in building facilities for tourists and visitors till June 2016. “Maharashtra attracted investments worth over Rs 15,500 crore of the outstanding investments worth over Rs 93,400 crore attracted by the hotel and tourism industry in India as of June 2016,” stated the ‘Domestic Tourism: Tap the Treasure,’ study conducted by ASSOCHAM’s Economic Research Bureau. The study said domestic tourist visits in India can increase from over 143 crore in 2015 to over 227 crore by 2020. While Maharashtra attracted investment proposals worth more than Rs 15,547 crore, Gujarat recorded Rs 13,542 crore, followed by Karnataka (Rs 11,049 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 89,26.4 crore) and West Bengal (Rs 8,207 crore) corresponding to 61.3 per cent of the outstanding investments. The remaining 16 states out of the major 21 states received Rs 36,150 crore worth proposals as of June 2016. The report also revealed that these investments would mainly cater to domestic tourists who have multiplied from 6.6 crore in 1991 to 143 crore in 2015. Big tourism projects are expected in the Mumbai-Pune zone, followed by the Konkan, Nashik, Ajanta-Ellora and around tiger reserves in Vidarbha. (Source: Times of India)

The Skål Club of Bombay has received the ‘Club of the year’ 2016 award at the Asian Area Congress held in Singapore on July 2016. Director Jason Samuel and Asian Area Secretary Arun Raghavan attended the event and accepted the award from Asian Area President Robert Sohn.

The Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) is expecting a surge in its membership, specially from Chennai and other southern cities post its convention. N.S. Rathor, Chairman, Western Region IATO and Regional Chapter Chairman, says, “Chennai ranks third in terms of number of members after New Delhi and Mumbai and I’m sure after this convention a lot of agents in the South will get interested in joining IATO. We have a lot of active members in South India in regions like Kerala and Chennai. Since this is the first time we are going to Chennai, there is a lot of interest among the south Indian agents, specially from Chennai because most of them haven’t been able to attend our convention before. So everyone there is excited.” Rathor relocated to Mumbai from Rajasthan 20 years ago and is the longest uninterrupted member in the Executive Committee. Speaking about the distribution of its membership across India, he says that Western India is number two after Delhi. “We are growing in numbers and our total strength now is over 1,600 of which 350 are active members.”